Detective Di Renjie's legend of Wu Dynasty

Chapter 627 Accident?

As soon as it got dark, Hekou Road, the main street in Xuyi City, was already empty.

A large inn stands beside the street, and the plaque above the threshold reads: Tongqu Inn.

It can be seen that this inn must have been very beautiful in the past, but now it is empty and deserted.

In the outer hall of the inn, the clerk was sitting at the counter boredly, constantly scratching the abacus in his hand.

Zeng Tai, Shen Tao, and Xiao Bao walked in.

The guy stood up and said, "Guys, you're back."

Zeng Tai nodded and asked, "Dude, is Mr. Di back yet?"

The buddy replied: "The few dials that went out have returned, and you are the only one missing."

Zeng Tai nodded, and the three of them walked quickly to Di Renjie's room in the inn.

In the room, everyone was reporting their visits to Di Renjie, while Fang Jiu stood aside.

Lu Jiying said: "We visited four salt stores in the city. One owner was a salt merchant named He, and the other three were named Chen, Fang, and Wang. It was exactly the same as what the shop owner said at noon."

Di Renjie asked, "How is the situation?"

Lu Jiying said: "The staff of the Yan Company surnamed Chen, Fang and Wang told us that the shipwreck happened in Hangou, and the official salt from the tea pavilion could not be transported to Xuyi. These salt companies stopped their business and never opened again. Excessive.

The reason why the shops were not closed was because they were all salt merchants designated by the imperial court. According to the salt law, the salt shop was not allowed to close. "

Di Renjie asked, "They didn't mention that they got salt from other sources?"

Lu Jiying shook her head and said, "No."

Di Renjie said: "That is to say, these three salt companies have no salt to sell now?"

Lu Jiying said, "Exactly."

Di Renjie nodded and said, "Well, it's basically the same as what I understand."

Before the words finished, several people from Zeng Tai opened the door and walked in: "Men."

Di Renjie smiled and said, "Zeng Tai, you've worked hard, how are you doing, what have you gained?"

Zeng Tai said: "We interviewed many people in the city in the afternoon, and what we learned from them was basically consistent with what the shop owner said.

At present, there is only one salt store in the county that is still selling salt, that is the He family salt store, and the other three have long been idle. When asked about the origin of the salt sold by the He family, the people all think that they bought it from the salt lord. "

Di Renjie nodded and said: "It seems that the conclusions we obtained from the three visits to the folks are basically the same.

Today we made an unannounced visit to the He Family Salt Company, and the staff there told me that the owner of the He Family Salt Company is named He Wuqi, and now he is the only one selling salt in the city.

He also revealed that this He Wuqi can get dozens of stones of table salt from the outside every time, and it can be concluded that it is undoubtedly illegal salt. "

Zeng Tai was surprised and said: "Dozens of stones, so many?"

Di Renjie thought: "Could it be that He Wuqi really got such a large amount of salt from the hands of the salt lord?"

Zeng Tai said: "But besides the salt lord, who else can provide private salt for the salt account?"

Di Renjie said: "But as far as I know, the salt owls are just some desperadoes who took risks to earn a living. In other words, they are also poor people."

Fang Jiu who was on the side interjected, "My lord, can you say a word?"

Di Renjie nodded and said, "Speak!"

Fang Jiu said: "Your Excellency is absolutely right. The other day in the village, Old Uncle Lu mentioned that Pang Si, a slender household in our village, became a salt lord."

Di Renjie nodded and said, "Yes."

Fang Jiu said: "But it was all forced by the Water Transport Yamen! Everyone has no food and can't survive, so they can only take risks. It's better than starving to death!"

Di Renjie sighed, nodded and said, "That's right, salt lords usually buy several buckets of salt from the stalls in the salt field at a low price, at most a stone of salt, and a team of several or even a dozen people form a team and carry it on their shoulders." Carrying poles, putting salt in baskets, traveling from village to town, selling salt to the common people at a lower price than ordinary salt.

Think about it, how could these poor salt lords have the power to organize such a large-scale salt sale?
Not to mention that the mules, horses and vehicles for transshipment require a lot of money, it is the cost they need to buy such a large amount of salt from the kiosks, it is a huge amount of money, how can they afford it? "

Fang Jiu said: "My lord, when you mentioned this matter just now, I wanted to say that the little salt owls have seen it, not to mention dozens of stones of salt, even a few stones, they can't afford to sell it!"

Lu Jiying said: "That's right, that's true. What Ge Lao said just now is true. A team of salt lords will carry baskets and burdens. Sometimes there are only a few buckets of salt in total."

Di Renjie nodded and said, "Yes!"

Zeng Tai said: "Master, what do you mean, the wholesalers of private salt are not salt lords?"

Di Renjie didn't answer, but asked instead: "Do you still remember the purpose of our unannounced visit to Xuyi?"

Zeng Tai was surprised: "You mean, the source of these private salts is the official salts that fell into the water in Hangou?"

Others were also taken aback: "Huh?"

Di Renjie said: "Is there no such possibility? Peng Chun, the prison of Dacang in Beigou, led people to transport the official salt to Weizidang in Xuyi.

A day later, a large barge sailed from the direction of Xuyi. Peng Chun and others loaded the official salt on the barge and continued to sail north, but soon disappeared.

Coincidentally, such a large-scale illegal salt sale happened in Xuyi territory. Is there really no connection between the two? "

Zeng Tai nodded and said, "It makes sense."

Di Renjie said: "Right now, things are not yet clear, so let's not jump to conclusions for now.

Today's investigation was very fruitful, and the next and most critical step was to find out the source of illegal salt through the salt merchant He Wuqi. "

Di Renjie looked at everyone, waved his hands and said with a smile, "Okay, everyone has worked hard today, let's go down and rest!"

Everyone agreed and turned to leave.

……

When the lights were on, Crouching Tiger Manor was peaceful.

Suddenly, a rush of gongs came from the direction of Crouching Tiger Hall, and the sound of gongs spread rapidly, and the silent Zhuangzi immediately became noisy.

The doors of the main room and the side door of the east courtyard were suddenly opened, and Wang Mang and Li Yuanfang had walked quickly into the courtyard.

At this time, the sound of gongs outside the courtyard became louder and louder, and Xiaoqing hurried into the courtyard and shouted: "Shuisheng! Mizuki!"

Wang Mang asked, "What happened outside?"

Xiaoqing said: "Just now Ge Biao told me that something big happened in the village, and my father invited the leaders of the various villages to discuss matters in the Crouching Tiger Hall. He said that the three of us should go too."

Li Yuanfang glanced at Xiaoqing and said, "I won't go."

Wang Mang frowned and didn't speak.

Xiaoqing said angrily: "You think I want to go, but the gongs are played and the crowd gathers in the big night. I am afraid that I will have something to do with Pang Si again. Let's go and have a look."

Wang Mang pondered for a moment, nodded and said: "Okay. Shuimu, we just took over the position of the leader of the Hanzhai, so it's good to go and have a look."

Seeing what Wang Mang said, Li Yuanfang nodded.

After finishing speaking, the three of them walked out of the east courtyard quickly and headed towards Crouching Tiger Hall.

(End of this chapter)